Pipes and other devices for the smoking of materials such as tobacco, essential oils, and the like are well known. They typically include an open bowl to contain the smokable material. The bowl communicates with a hollow projecting stem or tube that terminates in a mouthpiece. Hookahs and the like employ variants of this design wherein an air or water filled cooling chamber intervenes at some location between bowl and mouthpiece.
A shortcoming of prior smoking devices is the escape of smoke or vapor from the device into the surrounding atmosphere. This escape causes both the waste of material and the unintentional exposure of nearby individuals to smoke that they do not desire. The escape of smoke is not prevented by prior art devices, which at best provide only partial isolation of the source of smoke from the atmosphere during the smoking process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,573 to Aldin and U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,252 to Bianchino disclose smoking pipes including a bowl which can be sealed off at its upper end by a lid or cap. This feature does not isolate the source of smoke from the atmosphere, because the bottom of the bowl is always open to the atmosphere, being occluded only by an open screen or mesh upon which the smokable material rests. The open bottom is necessary to allow the application of flame to the smokable material, and to allow a continuous draft to pass through the material during inhalation. U.S. Pat. No. 7,905,236 to Bryman et al. discloses a bowl that is closed at its lower end and sealable with a slidable cover at its upper end, but is operable only when the slidable cover is open, the closed condition being useful only for storage.
Another shortcoming of prior smoking devices is the inclusion of projecting stems or mouthpieces. These structures are easily damaged or broken when the device is transported. The devices disclosed by Aldin, Bianchino, and Bryman et al., discussed above, all feature projecting stems or mouthpieces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,753 to Stryker discloses a smoking device with a non-projecting mouthpiece that is essentially an aperture in a smoke-receiving box, but does not disclose a device that completely isolates the source of smoke from the atmosphere.
There is therefore a need for a smoking device which isolates a source of smoke or vapor from the atmosphere during a smoking operation, and which features a nonprojecting, integrated mouthpiece.